Exelixis (NASDAQ:EXEL) Price Target Raised to $58.00

Exelixis (NASDAQ:EXEL) had its price objective boosted by Leerink Partners from $55.00 to $58.00 in a research report report published on Thursday,Benzinga reports. Leerink Partners currently has a market perform rating on the biotechnology company’s stock.

EXEL has been the subject of several other reports. Weiss Ratings raised Exelixis from a “buy (a-)” rating to a “buy (a)” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 8th. UBS Group set a $55.00 price target on shares of Exelixis in a report on Monday, August 3rd. Citigroup restated a “market outperform” rating on shares of Exelixis in a research note on Monday, October 19th. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Exelixis from $49.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, October 30th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on shares of Exelixis from $47.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $58.85.

Exelixis Stock Up 1.3%

Shares of EXEL opened at $69.57 on Thursday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $60.92 and its 200 day moving average price is $51.57. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.83, a P/E/G ratio of 1.79 and a beta of 0.45. Exelixis has a 12-month low of $39.71 and a 12-month high of $73.69.

Exelixis (NASDAQ:EXEL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 29th. The biotechnology company reported $0.94 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.89 by $0.05. Exelixis had a return on equity of 45.54% and a net margin of 35.45%. The company had revenue of $658.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $646.51 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.78 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 10.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that Exelixis will post 3.42 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Exelixis news, Director Mary Beckerle sold 9,812 shares of Exelixis stock in a transaction on Monday, August 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.66, for a total transaction of $526,511.92. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 16,079 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $862,799.14. This trade represents a 37.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders own 2.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Exelixis

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in EXEL. Allworth Financial LP increased its holdings in shares of Exelixis by 2.9% during the third quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 10,864 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $591,000 after buying an additional 302 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Exelixis by 9.4% in the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 214,045 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $12,502,000 after acquiring an additional 18,384 shares during the last quarter. Eurizon Capital SGR S.p.A. bought a new position in shares of Exelixis in the third quarter valued at approximately $357,000. Werba Rubin Papier Wealth Management acquired a new position in shares of Exelixis in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $213,000. Finally, CENTRAL TRUST Co grew its position in Exelixis by 44.9% during the 3rd quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co now owns 784 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $46,000 after acquiring an additional 243 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 85.27% of the company’s stock.

About Exelixis

Exelixis, Inc is a biotechnology company focused on discovering, developing and commercializing medicines for cancer. Founded in 1994 and headquartered in Alameda, California, the company has built its business around oncology treatments and continues to advance a pipeline of potential cancer therapies.

Its principal marketed medicine is cabozantinib, sold in the United States as Cabometyx and Cometriq. Cabometyx is used to treat certain patients with advanced kidney, liver and thyroid cancers, while Cometriq is used for medullary thyroid cancer.